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Topological magnetic and ferroelectric systems for reservoir computing

Nature Reviews Physics volume 6, pages 455–462 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Topological spin textures in magnetic materials and arrangements of electric dipoles in ferroelectrics are considered to be promising candidates for next-generation information technology and unconventional computing. Exciting examples are magnetic skyrmions and ferroelectric domain walls. We discuss how the physical properties of these topological nanoscale systems can be leveraged for reservoir computing, that is, for translating non-linear problems into linearly solvable ones. They fulfill the requirements for non-linearity, complexity, short-term memory and reproducibility, giving new opportunities for the downscaling of devices, enhanced complexity and versatile input and readout options. We also discuss the practical challenges and opportunities for exploiting the unique properties of these systems.

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Fig. 1: Physical reservoir computing.
Fig. 2: Magnetic textures for reservoir computing obtained by micromagnetic simulations.
Fig. 3: Key features of ferroelectric domain walls for reservoir computing.
Fig. 4: Various physical input, operational and readout schemes.
Fig. 5: Towards 3D reservoir computing and enhanced complexity using multi-scale and multiple-order-parameter systems.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to R. Msiska and H. Kurebayashi for numerous discussions. K.E.-S. acknowledges funding from the Emergent AI Center funded by the Carl Zeiss Foundation and the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Emmy Noether grant under project number 320163632. D.M. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement number 863691) and thanks NTNU for the support through the Onsager Fellowship Program and the Outstanding Academic Fellow Program. The work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centers of Excellence funding scheme, project number 262633, “QuSpin”.

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  1. Faculty of Physics and Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CENIDE), University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

    Karin Everschor-Sitte & Atreya Majumdar

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

    Katharina Wolk & Dennis Meier

  3. Center for Quantum Spintronics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

    Dennis Meier

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  1. Karin Everschor-Sitte
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Everschor-Sitte, K., Majumdar, A., Wolk, K. et al. Topological magnetic and ferroelectric systems for reservoir computing. Nat Rev Phys 6, 455–462 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-024-00729-w

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